Unreal
by Gamecrazy 25
Summary: AU. Kairi has hit a wall in her life and can’t seem to get over it. One day, a stranger takes her away from her secure home and drags her along on a seemingly nonsensical trip that floors everything she has ever known. Eventual Demyx/Kairi.
1. Chapter 1: Red Ink

Fanfiction--Unreal

Summary: AU. Kairi has hit a wall in her life and can't seem to get over it. One day, a stranger takes her away from her secure home and drags her along on a seemingly nonsensical trip that floors everything she has ever known. Eventual Demyx/Kairi

Chapter 1: Red Ink

Game's Note: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, you know the drill.

* * *

Kairi clutched the paper in her hands as if it was the only thing keeping her alive. Her footsteps were audible from her treading into puddles from last night's rain but her mind didn't comprehend them. Her world was encased in a single sheet with a brilliant crimson mark at the top. It was the snowy peak at the crest of a perilous, rocky mountain. It was so easy to imagine the top that no one really thought of the process to get there.

She was filled with a variety of emotions like a bag of mixed candy. The cinnamon sweets were imperfect circles of anger. Cerulean discs were flavored the blue raspberry tinge of sadness, sticky and easy to get attached to in the grand scheme of things. Any traces of butterscotch happiness was absent from her bag. Green, lime-tasting tranquility wasn't in her possession either. She didn't have the energy to act calm for anything.

Kairi squinted at the 67 scribbled in red ink and surrounded by a circle as if she could make it morph into a better grade. It might not have been so bad if the paper hadn't been a test. Her grade was surely to drop points because of this. Her parents would be very upset at this—no, more like acting like the apocalypse was about to occur because of Kairi's horrible grade. They acted like she was the last hope for all of humankind to succeed in school. Their expectations seemed ridiculous sometimes and it wasn't easy to maintain her grades at times.

Grumbling, Kairi continued her way down the sidewalk and crumpled the test in her hands. She didn't want to tell the truth to her domineering parents and face their wrath, but what could they do? Ground her for life? She snorted a bitter laugh at that. She attended Twilight Town Private School where the kids were smarter and more well behaved than in regular public schools, but Kairi didn't have anyone there that she could call a friend. Her parents had drilled it into her head that other kids would bring her down and put nonsense in her brain. That probably labeled her as antisocial but she didn't care about other people's opinions about her. If her parents did ground Kairi, it wouldn't be much different than her daily life. She rarely left the house except for school and school-related functions and friends didn't exist for her. Her family was well-to-do so there was no point in going to the store. Maids and servants took care of those duties once presented with a list.

The red-haired girl glared at the white crinkled ball in her right hand. Frowning and feeling twinges of anger rise in her heart, she chucked it ahead of her. She didn't care if it hit anyone and charged on ahead, dissatisfied with how everything turned out. She had worked so hard, but what for? To fail? Kairi couldn't take constant studying and pressure all of the time but anything she had to say that didn't agree with her parents' will was null and void. She had already seen the product of two attempts of defiance and that didn't convince her to speak out against it.

_Why am I angry? _Kairi blinked, glancing around at the streets as if she had just woken up from a dream. Her anger faded like it never poked into her soul, leaving her confused. _I don't like my parents controlling my every move, but I'll have a better life because of them. I'll tell them the truth and push myself to improve, that's all. Besides, my brothers probably have some hard, dumb lives. That's not what I want. They won't amount to anything. _Her mood restored to its former glory, she remembered that she had thrown her test away. _Damn it, why did I do that? It was stupid of me! _Smacking herself in the forehead, Kairi scanned the concrete strip to see if the ball of paper was anywhere. Hopefully no one played Good Samaritan and tossed it in the garbage. The thought of shoving her hands through muck and rotting food wasn't her idea of fun and ran a shiver of revulsion down her spine. She moved farther on the sidewalk, eyes alert for the horrible test. She berated herself on throwing it in the first place. Again, why had she done that? There was no logical reason to it.

"Hey, you with the school uniform!"

Kairi jumped at the sudden loud voice, glancing around for the speaker. It couldn't have been any businessmen or little kids holding onto the hands of their mothers.

"Over here!"

Kairi traced the sound to the right person this time. The male in question was crouched on a small stool partly into an alley, a blue instrument of some kind propped against the wall. His light brown hair was some strange combination of a mullet and a Mohawk and Kairi was at a loss as to what to call it. His appearance suggested that he wasn't prim and proper like she was. His wrinkled blue shirt was partly covered by an unbuttoned denim vest. His gray jeans were torn with holes and faded in parts.

"What?" Kairi asked, unsure of what the stranger wanted of her. She faintly recognized him but it was too dim for her memory to grasp. Maybe he was some kind of street performer who played for money. The coffee can by his foot seemed to have quarters and other coins inside.

"Looking for this?" The male asked, holding up the very same paper ball that she had been looking for since what seemed like a few moments ago. "I'm glad this was only paper. You'd probably be killer in baseball with the distance it went. If it was a baseball, I'd have a dent in my head."

Kairi didn't care about how good she would be in a sport she had no interest in and held out her hand. "I need that."

"Hold on there, Red." The male held away the test paper like he was teasing a toddler with a toy. "No manners? What's the magic word?"

"My name isn't Red, it's Kairi!"

"Well, what do you say, Kairi? Didn't your parents teach you how to be a proper lady?"

"Fine, please." Kairi sighed, wanting this useless conversation to be over with. Her parents were expecting her home by now and she couldn't leave without the horrid test.

Instead of giving it back, the male unwrapped the paper and whistled at the red-inked grade. "Wow, you bombed this. Math not your strong point?"

"Don't look at it! I need to take it home and study and I'm not leaving without it!" Kairi leaned forward and went to snatch it out of the guy's hands but he whipped it away from her reach.

"You're pretty rude. Didn't even ask for it, and I'm only looking. What's the harm? Really want this?"

"Yes."

The male gestured to the nearby coffee can. "Will you help out a guy and put something in my can? Every little bit helps, you know."

Kairi patted the pockets of her dress for something to shut him up and make him return her test. She didn't like this guy and could see why her parents advised anything hanging out with anyone. If they were all like this poor musician, no wonder she had no friends. He was irritating her even she had just met him. Her search ended up with two pennies and she dropped them in the can. "There, two cents. Now hand over my test."

The stranger's eyes widened in surprise. "Two cents? I can't even buy a piece of gum with that. Come on, don't be cheap. You got to have something more."

"I don't have anymore money." Kairi made to grab her paper again and the guy didn't pull away in time, her hand gripping the item in a way that made it rip in half. Making a frustrated noise, she said, "Now look what you made me do! I can't show this to my parents now." She shook the wrinkled and now torn half of the test that was in her hand as if she was scolding the guy with it. "Why didn't you just let me have it so I can go?"

"What's the fun in that?" The guy asked, plucking the paper out of Kairi's hand and holding it up with his own section. "Well, you said you can't go home without this, right?"

"Yeah, but what's it to you, you… Thief!"

"Ouch, that hurt," the male said, clutching his heart in fake pain and an exaggerated expression of despair on his face. Straightening up, he said, "I guess you can't show your parents a ripped test, but it's a bad grade anyway. Would they really want to see it?"

"No, but they still want--"

The stranger stacked the test halves on top of each other and ripped them in tiny pieces. Kairi, not in the mood to be trifled with, dived forward in an attempt to save the paper and almost growled at her failure to do so. Before long, the paper was scattered in the air and a sudden breeze blew them away into the road and streets. Tempted to scream at the top of her lungs at the performer's antics, she managed to hold back most of her rage but still said in a shaky but calm-sounding voice, "You're impossible. I asked you for my test and then you go and rip it up. Who does that?"

"Me," the performer said with no remorse in his tone. "So you can't go home now."

"Unless I made you track down the pieces and I'm close to doing that."

"You can't make me do anything like that. But anyway, you can't go home without your test and since I ripped it up, you have to stay here."

"Whatever." Kairi didn't want to hear anything else the performer had to say and turned around to leave but his knees popped as he sat up from his stool and put a hand on her shoulder. Wheeling around and frowning, she said, "Don't even touch me, psycho!" She made to swing her body in a way that would knock away his hand but his grip remained strong.

"Hey, don't get all worked up at me. I'm just confirming what you said." The stranger's face turned into a half-grin and that only made Kairi angrier at him.

"I'm going home no matter what and you can't stop me."

"I can't, huh? What if I said I'd let you go if you helped me pack up my stuff? My friend should come by any minute now to pick me up."

Kairi had no interest in helping him out, her patience shot with dealing with him. "I'm _not_ going to do anything with you and that's that."

"I'm not going to let you go unless you help me, okay?" The male's face grinned fully now, a joker's grin. It was sickeningly happy and Kairi was disgusted by the sight of it. Did it make him happy to torture random girls he didn't know when they passed him on the sidewalk? He was probably some kind of pervert and that idea didn't improve her opinion of him at all.

"Fine," Kairi said. "I'll help you, but get your hand off of me." The guy did so and she wanted to split right then and there but something kept her remaining on the spot. "What do you want me to do?"

The guy walked a few steps back, faded lights on his sneakers flashing weakly. He scooped up the coffee can and popped a plastic lid on top of it that had clung to the bottom of it. He held it out to Kairi. "Hold this, will you?" Kairi snatched it from his grasp as he up-righted a black instrument case she hadn't noticed before. The dark alley had masked it from view. The male removed a lock from the clasp and lifted his blue, ornate instrument into it after opening the top. Replacing the lock when the lid of the case was shut, he fished around in his pocket and took out a set of keys. Clicking the handle of the lock into place and turning the key inside of it, Kairi's eyes caught a glimpse of something red dangling from the keyring.

It was a key chain of two circular objects with points protruding out of each of them. Besides two black pieces of plastic crossed in the middle, the outside rims were red and white. They looked fancy in a way, but the design wasn't what made Kairi look at them. _I've seen them before, I know it. _She allowed a confused expression on her face for the moment. _If they belong to who I'm thinking about, then how--_

"Done!" the male said, breaking Kairi's train of thought. He had his instrument case slung over one slung, a worn strap crossing over his chest. The wooden stool he had been sitting on was tucked under his left arm. "Now we have to find Lex. He can't be hard to find."

"Lex?"

"Yeah, Lexaeus. He's my friend."

"After we find him, can I go home?"

"Sure."

Kairi sighed in relief. The less time she had to spend with this unpredictable guy, the better. She was already at her maximum tolerance for him and she hadn't even known him for that long.

"Come on, Grabby. I think Lex is at the library." The male walked a couple steps ahead of Kairi and beckoned her to follow him. "This way."

"I know where the library is, thief. And my name isn't Grabby, it's Kairi." Kairi fell into step beside the guy even if she wanted to leave him in the dust. If she slowed down, that meant more time she had to be in his presence. If she walked at a turtle's pace, the guy would make some smart comment about her speed or the like. It seemed too much like him to pass up.

"Grabby, Kairi. What's the difference? You wanted to grab your test back from me so bad." The guy shrugged in a lopsided way with the instrument on his back, preventing perfect movement of his shoulder for the gesture.

"Because you snatched it from me, thief!" Kairi sensed an argument in the air. There were too many cinnamon candies in her mental bag now. Maybe she could find a jawbreaker to bust his teeth with. That would shut him up.

The performer gave no attention to her statement and glanced ahead on the other side of the street. "Oh, there's Lex! Let's go, Grabby." He used his free hand to seize Kairi's arm and dragged her across to the other sidewalk, only using a couple seconds for any cars.

"Lex!" the guy said, approaching a muscular, scary-looking male who had exited the library door. Lexaeus looked like he could crush boulders with his bare hands, and his face had a somewhat chiseled quality to it. His blue eyes were small and intense. The short orange hair stuck out from behind his head and had a crinkled-like appearance. The gray t-shirt he wore seemed like it would burst if Lexaeus moved an inch, the muscles on his body defined by the snugness of the clothing. His shorts and shoes weren't as uncomfortable-looking as the shirt. "Hey, man! How did sorting books go?"

"Fine and I got paid." Lexaeus took out a wallet from his pocket and withdrew some assorted bills. "Maybe we can go to an actual restaurant instead of fast food tonight."

"Great! I want seafood."

"That's too expensive for us now."

"Darn. Oh, and this is Kairi, Lex. She's helping me carry my stuff."

Lexaeus nodded at Kairi, who was baffled at how someone could put up with a guy like the performer. "Hello, Kairi. I'm Lexaeus."

"Yeah, I know." Kairi didn't feel like being polite at the moment even if her annoyance wasn't directed at Lexaeus. He seemed much saner than his genius friend. She handed the coffee can to the performer. "Here's your can. I'm going home now."

The brown-haired guy looked confused at her statement. "But Kairi, you're already home."

"What are you talking about? I have a house to live in with my parents and I don't remember you being a part of it."

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you what I thought. You're coming along with us from now on, okay?"

"No! Where in the hell did you get that idea, you thief?" Kairi would have been shocked at her choice of words but now wasn't the time for realizations like that.

"Well, if you went to your parent's house now, you wouldn't have a test and you told me several times that you couldn't go home without it. I picked you up and changed your home for you." The guy turned to Lexaeus. "You can go get in the truck, Lex. I'll bring Kairi in a second." The muscular man nodded and withdrew a set of keys from his pocket, a tomahawk-shaped keychain dangling from the silver ring as well as keys. He glanced at both sides of the street before opening the driver's door of the blue truck and clambered inside.

"What." Kairi was too shocked, confused, and anger to form the word into a proper question.

"You're one of us now, isn't that great?" The guy smiled his disarming grin again. "You'll have lots of fun, believe me. It's hard work but it's better than failing math tests if you ask me."

Once Kairi regained enough sense to make a sentence, she said, "You're crazy. Really fucking crazy. You're expecting me to get kidnapped by you, a stranger? Not happening, thief." She was going to run, she swore it. He'd probably rape her in an alley and leave her there for dead.

"I kind of agree on the crazy part. That's what _he_used to tell me all of the time, but he never meant it in a bad way." The performer's eyes clouded over a little with an unreadable emotion but went back to normal so fast that Kairi wondered if she had only imagined that. "Oh, I'm Demyx. Nice to meet you, Grabby." Demyx the psycho thief stuck out a hand, waiting for her to shake it.

"I keep on telling you that my name is Kairi, not Grabby, but whatever. You don't listen anyway. Kairi Panettiere." Kairi didn't want to shake Demyx's hand but she took it anyway, giving it a single shake and removing it.

"Well, nice to meet you, Kairi, again. Come on, we need to leave."

"You're crazy, Demyx," Kairi said.

Demyx smiled. "I know."

Before she got into the pick-up truck, Kairi glanced behind her. She thought she could make out the orange roof of her parent's mansion. Would she see it again? The question was, what kind of insanity was she willing to face? Demyx's illogical ideas or her parent's iron-fisted methods? Kairi didn't hesitate to choose Demyx. Crazy as he was, he wasn't exactly mean to her. He teased but that wasn't evil.

"I'm going to forgive you for what happened to my test."

"Wow, really?" Demyx asked, surprised. "Is it your time of the month or something?"

"No, you idiot," Kairi sighed. Hopefully this choice of poison wouldn't come back to bite her. "Do me a favor and shut up, will you? Idiotic things come out of your month."

"Aww, don't be a spoilsport, Kairi." Demyx grinned. "Lex is waiting on us." He unloaded his instrument case, stool, and coffee can in the back of the trunk. After he did that, he extended a hand to Kairi. "Let's go."

"Sure, but I'm not holding your hand."

"I didn't mean that."

"Good."


	2. Chapter 2: Blue Truck

Chapter 2: Blue Truck

Game's Note: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square-Enix does.

* * *

Kairi put her hand in Demyx's since he offered. Lexaeus hadn't started the truck yet but he would soon, most likely. Kairi made to move to the passenger door and outstretched her free hand to grasp the handle when Demyx asked, "What are you doing?"

Kairi gave him an incredulous look. "I'm getting in the truck, what are you doing?"

"Getting in the truck." Demyx was standing outside of the back of the pickup, looking at Kairi as if what she said didn't make any sense. She wondered what crazy thought went through his mind this time and the conclusion she created made about as much sense as him.

Frowning, she said, "I'm not getting in the back. Don't you know how dangerous that is?"

"Nothing's happened to me so it must be safe. Haven't you always wanted to try it?"

"No!" Kairi had been chauffeured to school before but most of the time she had walked the distance. She had never been in a truck and had heard too much about accidents where people in the very back were injured or dead. She wasn't going to be a statistic in some newspaper. Freeing her hand, she made to open the passenger door again. "I'm going to live in an accident, thank you very much."

"You're missing out on the fun, Kairi. Come on, just this once? I won't make you do it again. Please?" Demyx put on a begging face that probably would have moved anyone with an ounce of compassion in their hearts. However, Kairi didn't see it that way. Her life was more important than Demyx's demands.

"I said, no. That's it. That's final. I'm not riding in the back with you." Kairi would have ended the situation by finally opening the door and getting into the seat beside Lexaeus if Demyx didn't have other ideas.

"It's a good thing I don't always listen to people," Demyx said, and Kairi had little time to react when he stepped into the back of the truck and pulled her up next to him with surprising strength. He didn't seem loaded with muscles like Lexaeus was but seemed to have something under his clothes. Why did she even think that?

Kairi, once she recovered from the unneeded thoughts, was flustered at Demyx's actions once more. "I-I can tell you don't listen!" Suddenly she was embarrassed and angry, not a very good combination. "Who picks up a girl like that? You _really_ don't make sense!"

Demyx grinned and it halfway convinced Kairi to ditch him right then and there. "You might like riding here. How will you know if you don't try? Little spice to life, you know."

"Spice? More like insanity." Kairi crossed her arms and straightened out her light blue plaid skirt. Her bag was beside her that contained her school supplies. Speaking about school, she said, "You know I'm still in my school uniform, right? People will think you're a pedophile or something." Her moods were at their limit today. She had calmed down quickly from when Demyx scooped her up like a bag of potatoes into the back of the truck. It felt like a bad day of PMS.

"Why would I do anything like that? Technically, I wouldn't be a pedophile since I'm not eighteen yet. I will be in a few months but that's then." Demyx turned from his sitting position and knocked on the window. "Lex, let's go!" The ignition was turned and Kairi squeaked as the truck moved out of its parking spot and into the road. She laid down on the rough metal floor of the back, not wanting to look into the headlights of cars or their drivers. The wind overhead had ruffled her hair when the vehicle began to move and a few strands crossed over her field of vision. Heart racing, she vowed to get revenge on Demyx for forcing this on her. The guy in question enjoyed the rushing air and waved at a few people when they passed.

_He's crazy. What was I on when I agreed to this? _Kairi was tempted to jump out but then her life would meet an untimely end. She wasn't going to die because of some weirdo like Demyx. When death was one possible outcome in case of an accident where she would turn into a bloody, meaty human accordion, she'd probably want to live in his presence rather than die because of it. Kairi doubted that she would ever understand how every neuron operated in his brain to get insane thoughts but it seemed better than a trip to heaven.

"Kairi."

"What?" Her words were curt again, not surprising her. Kairi was halfway scared for her well-being and her stomach curled. Hopefully she wouldn't be seeing the remains of Twilight Town Private School's lunch in a nearby trashcan.

"You don't really look so good. You're kind of pale and shaky." Kairi tilted her head to see Demyx's expression and it showed concern. The part of her that didn't care for how he acted gave away a little at the sign of human emotions. She still wasn't sure what her opinion was on him, however.

Kairi made to sit up slowly as to not upset her stomach. "I'm fine. You're just seeing things." The top of her head barely reached the bottom of the back window where a vague outline of Lexaeus was, but now she wasn't curled up on the metal floor anymore. She caught a glance of the car behind them and a wave of nausea flowed through her. She willed herself not to vomit all over the place. Kairi hadn't wanted to ride in the truck like this but she wouldn't let this horrible ordeal get the best of her. If things turned out okay, she hoped Demyx wouldn't plop her here next time they had to go somewhere. That might happen if she claimed she was fine and expressed dislike for it, it was likely.

"Um, no, I'm not." Demyx wasn't convinced at her thin lie. "You get motion sickness, don't you?"

"N-No. Where would you get an idea like that?" Kairi attempted to deny it but felt like it didn't end very well. It didn't even sound plausible to her after she said it. Her voice wasn't stammering or quivering in her mind's eye.

"I'm going to scratch off good liar at your list of traits. If you feel bad enough, I could tell Lex to pull over and take you to a bathroom. We're not out of town just yet." The orange decor of Twilight Town still passed on by the growing traffic. It wouldn't be much longer before the highway started.

Kairi shook her head. "I said I'll be fine, now leave me alone." The air was a little hard to breathe since it was rushing by so quickly, but maybe it would make her feel better. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Radiant Garden. Ever been there?"

"Radiant Garden?" Kairi had heard the name of the city. Maybe her parents had business there once. It wasn't uncommon for there to be a sitter in the Panettiere household, even if she thought she was too old to have a babysitter. Why did her parents even bother with hiring someone else for a day or two? There were maids and the like around the mansion to take care of the place. They could check in to make sure she hadn't run away or the like.

_I guess I pretty much ran away today. So much for a lookout. _Kairi didn't know if she was going to go back home yet or not. If Demyx was intolerable past the point of sanity, she would take her things and find a way home. She sort of wondered what it would be like to live the way he did. Her opinion wasn't that positive yet, but as long as he acted in a way she could understand, she could get along with him and not feel an urge to smack the smile off of his face.

"I guess you haven't been there before," Demyx said, laughing. "That sounds kind of weird to me since that's where I live."

"Really? Why were you in Twilight Town then?" Kairi straightened her position some but not enough so she could see over the edge of the back. Seeing the now thicker traffic once the last few signs of Twilight Town had vanished, it would make the slight healing of her motion sickness null and void. Her head still pounded away and that wasn't very comfortable. She could think clearly once she put forth the effort.

"Lex and I go there to work a lot. There's usually some kind of job on the board somewhere. Lex got sorting books from there today. Radiant Garden doesn't always have work for people like us, so." Demyx shrugged. "I play my sitar on the streets too. I love music and people put something in my coffee can when they pass by. Well, usually. Once some kid threw an egg at me. That didn't make me happy."

"I don't think anyone would like that." Kairi knew she wouldn't be able to smile about it if she was the target of egg-throwing. "Your life doesn't sound easy. What's a sitar anyway?"

"Yeah, Lex and me eat a lot of fast food when we don't have a lot of work. It gets kind of old but hey, we all need food." Demyx leaned forward to pat his instrument case, smiling fondly. "A sitar is kind of like a guitar, but it isn't. It has Indian origins. I could tell you more, but do you know a lot about music?"

"Not really. I can read some notes, but that's about it." Kairi had learned that in a small music course once in school, but she couldn't play an instrument like Demyx. She doubted she had a talent for it.

"Well, I guess I'll spare you the in-depth explanation then. All you need to know is that I play a sitar, not a guitar." Demyx removed his hand from his instrument case and draped it in his lap. "Want to hear me play sometime? You won't have to pay."

"Sure, why not?" Kairi was interested to hear what music Demyx could come up with. She liked music but never had the chance to really listen to any because of her parents' restrictions.

"Cool." Demyx smiled once more. "Well, I guess I'd better ask you about yourself. How old are you?"

"Sixteen." Kairi's birthday had already passed for this year. The celebration didn't stick out in her mind much. It was like all of the other celebrations thrown for her: needlessly extravagant and formal.

"You're only a year younger than me. That's not too bad. Lex is three or four years older than me, but he's a cool guy. He looks scary but he's not unless you provoke him. He's pretty strong when he's mad, but he's levelheaded most of the time." Demyx paused before saying, "Oh yeah, you probably shouldn't ask him about his last name. He's sensitive about it."

Kairi didn't know Lexaeus that well but that was because she just met him. He didn't seem like a bad guy, like Demyx said. "Why? Is it funny or something?"

"Ask him about it. I don't need a glare from him again. Lex has a fierce glare that would make Radiant Garden flee in terror."

That seemed possible but Kairi figured that Demyx was exaggerating on that. "What's your last name anyway?"

"O'Donohue."

"Isn't that Irish?"

Demyx shrugged. "I guess. It sounds Irish. Do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah, two brothers. The oldest one's four year older than me and the second oldest is two years older than I am." Reno and Axel Panettiere had been subject to the same treatment as Kairi. Private schools, pressure to be the best, get good grades--it was everything she had to deal with now.

"Wow, two brothers. I bet they're a handful. I don't have any siblings but I wish I did. It sounds fun."

"Yeah, they were. Reno, my oldest brother, couldn't stay out of trouble when he was in school. I heard so much about what he did when I was in seventh grade that I got pretty tired of it. He was in eleventh then but now he's supposed to be in college. I have no idea if that's true or not, but knowing him, Reno hasn't even thought about college." Kairi remembered that Reno hung around with other students in his class, namely Elena, Rude, and Tseng. She had glimpsed them in the halls a few times due to the middle and high schools being combined in Twilight Town Private School. It was hard not to notice Reno. He was pretty popular among the girls and was known to be one of the few people on campus to refuse to wear his uniform correctly. His tie was either absent or crudely fashioned and more than one button was undone on the shirt issued by the school. His wild red hair wasn't as crazy as Axel's porcupine spikes, but it was a nightmare for the school board. Reno had been given detention or another punishment for his violation of the dress code several times but he never obeyed the rules. That didn't win any points with their parents but Axel admired his older brother's disobedience. Kairi had been on the sidelines, unsure of what to think.

"I don't mind mischief every now and then. Boredom's not very fun." Demyx became interested when Kairi explained a little about Reno. "Supposed to be in college? Something happen to him?"

"Yeah." Kairi nodded. "He graduated from high school with passing marks but he didn't make our parents' standards. There were a lot of arguments about that." Some of them carried into the night and hearing her parents and oldest brother lose their heads over matters like education wasn't a pleasant backdrop to sleep. "Our parents picked out a college for him and there was a waiting period for when Reno would actually enroll. One morning I woke up and he was gone. He didn't leave a note or anything. I have no idea where he is now."

"He ran away?"

"Yeah. I guess he just got tired of everything our parents wanted for him. I can't really ask him if that was the reason, but it would make sense." Mr. and Mrs. Panettiere didn't seem to raise their three children as much as overrule them. Reno, Axel, and Kairi didn't have any voice to object to anything their parents laid out for them.

"Wow. From what you've told me, I don't blame him for flying the coop like he did. Your parents are a lot different than mine, that's for sure. Mine wish that I'll get a solo career or a band in music so my life will be more stable, but I like living like this. It's not so bad once you get used to it."

Kairi didn't care much for talking about her parents. She loved them in some way but the feeling was soured because of their views. She saw an opening for a subject change and seized it. "Did you ever try to become a professional musician?"

"Thought about it. I graduated from high school not too long ago and I looked over some papers for musical colleges and stuff. I don't really know, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend that much money to improve my skills and do other things. My parents have been saving up for a college fund for years but it takes a lot of money to go to college, you know? I'm not sure if my dream is worth that much. I kind of want to succeed in my own way, if you know what I mean."

"I guess I do." Kairi didn't feel nauseous anymore and that was a welcome sign. She was grateful that Demyx was being sane for the first time since she had met him in what seemed like forever ago. "How far are we from Radiant Garden?"

"It won't be too much longer. How's your motion sickness?"

"I don't _have_any motion sickness. I thought I told you that." Kairi still had a headache but most of her ailment had cleared up. Maybe talking with Demyx had distracted her enough that she forgot about the symptoms.

"Okay, you look better than you did. That's good. And you know what?"

"What?"

"You said your brother Reno probably ran away because he didn't like how his parents wanted his life, right?"

"Yeah."

"So you could say that he wanted freedom."

"Well, sure." Kairi would have raised an eyebrow at Demyx if she could do it. "Why are you asking me this?"

Demyx turned a bit to face Kairi, smiling with an airy quality to it. "You want the same thing. I can see it in your eyes."

His words stung her in a way she hadn't anticipated. It felt like he had just shot an arrow into her heart. _I didn't think Demyx could say anything like that. It's... surprising. _Kairi put all of her will into not letting her eyes widen in astonishment. "N-No, I don't. I'm only here because you k-kidnapped me." Her voice was smaller and less convincing than usual.

"I didn't kidnap you, I just invited you to come along with me and Lex."

"Forcefully."

"You'll like being with the two of us, Kairi. I can just feel it." Demyx's content expression dissolved into a more wistful one. "I wonder what _he_ would say if he knew about you joining us."

"He? Who's he?" Kairi remembered Demyx saying something about a guy not that long ago in the same sort of tone.

"A friend of mine." Demyx didn't elaborate and that made her think about what could have happened to this mysterious male. "Oh, you never said anything about your other brother."

"He ran away too. He probably had the same reasons as Reno did." That wouldn't surprise her.

"So now you're the last one to fly away." Demyx returned to his usual emotional status quickly. He seemed to have recovered from whatever was on his mind for now. "What's that brother's name?"

Kairi opened her mouth to say it but all of a sudden, the truck came to a stop. Demyx glanced around and said, "Oh, we're here. Tell me later, okay? We can probably do a couple jobs before it's dinner time." He picked up his instrument case and stool, looking over his shoulder and saying to Kairi, "Get the coffee can, will you?" He put one leg over the side of the truck and jumped down.

Kairi picked up the can and used the tire to help get down from the horrid back, Demyx waiting for her. Looking around Radiant Garden, its atmosphere seemed to be different from Twilight Town, but that might have been only because she hadn't gone anywhere outside of her hometown. The tall building the truck was parked beside was an apartment complex.

Lexaeus emerged from the driver's side and approached the waiting Kairi and Demyx. "I have an apartment here," he said. "Demyx and I stop here every so often, but most of the time we spend a lot of time on the road. Radiant Garden and Twilight Town are our most frequent stops, but we've gone farther when there isn't any work."

"Yeah, once we went to this weird town called Traverse Town. There were a lot of strange people there, but me and Lex built some weird ships when we were in town. It was pretty good money for a while. But yeah, we're not really homeless."

The thought of Lexaeus and Demyx being travelers with no sort of home hadn't crossed Kairi's mind. It might have if she had been around them longer with no sort of apartment or anything in sight for a few days. "I guess you two don't spend a lot of time here."

"We don't if we're away for a while," Lexaeus said, taking out his keyring. "I lock up before we drive somewhere out of town. Sometimes we're don't return here for a week or so, depending on the work flow."

"Actually, we weren't going to come back here today but since you're one of us now, I guess Lex thought you'd better know where we stand and stuff," Demyx said. "Right?" He looked at his friend for confirmation.

"Yes." Lexaeus nodded. "I hope that there's room for three people in my apartment. Follow me." He walked up a set of nearby stairs and Demyx followed suit, taking Kairi's hand to make sure she came along with them.

Kairi was a little apprehensive to this lifestyle. It seemed likely that she would be in Twilight Town sometime in the future, but her wandering near home was probable as well. She hadn't spent as much as an hour away from the mansion and already she wasn't missing her room. Would she be discovered and sent back home or would she remain in the company of Lexaeus and Demyx for a while? She didn't know what would happen to her and it made her uncertain of what she was going to do. Kairi's home was a safe place but the feelings there weren't amiable at all. With Demyx and Lexaeus, what lied ahead was foreign and changing, and it wouldn't be easy and structured like how it was at the mansion. Days at the Panettiere household were always the same: wake up, get ready for school, eat breakfast, finish up for school, walk to be driven to Twilight Town Private School, work at school until the final bell rang, get home whichever way happened in the morning, do homework and study, eat dinner, get ready for bed, and go to sleep. Nothing was really a surprise to her during her daily schedule.

Kairi thought she would at least try to go along with Lexaeus and Demyx. It wouldn't really hurt to live like they did, but it would take some getting used to for sure. How long would it last? Hopefully Demyx wouldn't drive her up the wall too much.


End file.
